An “elixir of life”?

Taurine — which is added to energy drinks and taken by coffee drinkers to keep down the caffeine jitters — might be more important than we thought. According to Columbia U researchers, it might be not only essential to healthy aging, but also “taurine supplements can slow down the aging process in worms, mice, and monkeys and can even extend the healthy lifespans of middle-aged mice by up to 12%.”

So let’s see … if you’d normally be reasonably healthy till age 80, it could give you an extra 9.6 years before you welcomed the cold embrace of death.

Hyperbole? Probably, but the lead author did say, “This study suggests that taurine could be an elixir of life within us that helps us live longer and healthier lives.”

Another breast cancer drug success

Novartis’s breast cancer drug Kisqali cut breast cancer recurrence risk by 25% — at least when it’s diagnosed early. (And it’s often caught early, too.)

This isn’t quite as good as Lilly’s similar Verzenio^*, but Kisqali has fewer side effects, and as it’s a long-term med that’s kind of important.

At this point Verzenio is approved for women at high risk of recurrence after surgery, while Kisqali is approved only for cancer that has spread. This new study might change that.

^* I could swear that’s the name of a Shakespearean character.

High-five me, Kate!

A welcoming high-five to Kate O’Reilly, who was just named senior director of development at UGA’s College of Pharmacy. Look for her signature on the letters you’ll be getting asking for money, and based on her creds you’ll have trouble saying No.

Kate will be at the Georgia Pharmacy Convention — if you see her, say hello and deliver our high-five in person — she looks like this:

Captain Obvious just uses it for the cat memes

“Have anxiety? Social media not the best source for coping advice, researchers say”

Locust brains find cancer

If you were looking for a new way to detect cancer, chances are you wouldn’t think, “What if we performed brain surgery on a locust and inserted electrodes into the brain regions that process smell and used that to detect the scent of cancer cells?”

Yeah, well, you’re not Michigan State bioengineer Debajit Saha and team, who “tapped into the odor-sensing circuitry of the locust brain to detect the scent signatures of human oral cancers.”

They wafted the gas samples—each of which contained a distinct mixture of VOCs from the corresponding cells—over the locust’s antennae and recorded the brain’s electrical activity. After pooling the results from multiple locusts, Saha’s team found that their brains produced a distinct electrical pattern for each of the different cell types. The locusts not only distinguished cancer from healthy cells but discriminated between the subtle scent fingerprints of the different oral cancers.

Short Takes

Take it easy on Monday (and maybe Sunday too)

“Serious heart attacks are more likely to happen at the start of the working week than at any other time,” according to an Northern Irish study based on an analysis of more than 10,000 patients.

The researchers found a spike in rates of STEMI [ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction] heart attacks at the start of the working week, with rates highest on a Monday. There were also higher rates of STEMI than expected on a Sunday.

RSV vax coming to infants (probably)

The FDA’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee voted unanimously to recommend AstraZeneca/Sanofi’s mRNA RSV vaccine for infants. “The panel also voted 19-2 to recommend a second dose of the treatment to children up to age two that are prone to severe infections.”